Elect'road

The Elect'Road is a plug-in series hybrid version of Renault's popular Kangoo. Sales began in Europe in 2003, mainly in France,[1] Norway and a few in the UK. The Elect'Road was sold alongside Renault's Electri'cité electric-drive Kangoo battery electric van. Renault discontinued the Elect'Road after selling about 500, primarily in France, Norway and the UK, for about €25,000.[2]

The Elect'Road had a 150 km (93 mi) range using a nickel-cadmium battery pack and a liquid-cooled gasoline "range-extender" engine.

The vehicle is equipped with a Saft nickel-cadmium battery and has a range of 60 km (40 mi) to 100 km (60 mi) when in all electric mode. The battery consists of two cases underneath the chassis, one with 8 monoblocks and the other with 14. Each is fitted with a fan cooling system and has a minimum 100 A·h capacity. The 312 kilograms (688 lb) battery provides 132 V and 13.2 kWh.[4]

The on board 3.5-kilowatt charger could charge a depleted battery pack to 95% charge in about four hours from 220 volts.[5]

The battery life is guaranteed for 5 years (1500 cycles) and the cost to replace them if needed was 7000EUR[6]

The range extender is a Lombardini[7] (LGW 523 mpi) liquid cooled 500-cubic-centimetre (31 cu in) 16-kilowatt (21 hp) gasoline generator. The generator used two high voltage/high output/low volume alternators, each of which supplied up to 5.5 kilowatts (7.4 hp) at 132 volts at 5000 rpm.[2] The operating speed of the internal combustion engine—and therefore the output delivered by the generators—varied according to demand.

It is equipped with a multipoint injection system and catalytic converter (consistent with the rules of euro 2000 in the MVEG cycle).[8]

The fuel tank had a capacity of 10 litres and is housed within the right rear wheel arch. The range extender function is activated by a switch on the dashboard.

The Elect'road also offers a “boost” mode which provides better acceleration, by increasing the maximum power from 22 to 29 kW, together with a “snow” mode which is better adapted to driving on low-grip surfaces.[2]

That being said, if you choose to run the RE engine all the time, the fuel economy drops to a disappointing 7 liters/100 km (39 miles per imperial gallon). However, a user has found that they only needed to use it 10% of the time in which case economy improves to a much more responsible 3 liters/100 km (91 miles per imperial gallon).[5]